Technical SEO

What is 301 redirect?

Updated on November 6, 2026

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirection from one address to another. Browsers follow it, and search engines transfer the old page's ranking and links to the new one.

It is the tool for every address that changes for good: a renamed page, a site moved to a new domain, http moved to https, www merged with the bare domain. The server answers the old address with a 301 status and the new location; the engine updates its index over the following weeks.

A redirect should land on a final page that returns 200, not on another redirect, and should keep the reader on the equivalent page rather than on the home page. Google treats a mass redirect to the home page as a soft 404. Keeping a list of redirects for years is normal: old links keep bringing visitors.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a 301 and a 302?

A 301 is permanent and moves the ranking to the new address. A 302 is temporary and keeps the old address in the index. For a page that will not come back, use 301.

Do redirects lose ranking?

Google says a 301 passes the signals fully. In practice a chain of several redirects, or a redirect to an unrelated page, loses some; one hop to the equivalent page keeps what the old page had.

Related terms

Canonical URL

The canonical URL is the address a site declares as the official one for a page when the same content is reachable at several addresses. Engines index that one and credit it with the links of the others.

noindex

noindex is a rule placed in a page (a meta tag or an HTTP header) asking search engines not to list it, while still letting them crawl it and follow its links.

Back to the definitions